Mr. O’Toole travels a lot and addresses those who will listen about the follies and unjustifiability of historically popular public transportation systems, especially “light” rail, and streetcars that are merely light rail with a friendlier, more comfortable, more nostalgic and salable label.

We’ve railed for years against the planners in Anaheim, Santa Ana and particularly the rail fanatics at the Orange County Transportation Authority that ignore all the evidence and promote this costly nonsense on busy streets that need no more congestion, or injuries, or deaths.

Monday’s OCTA Board decision to “continue studying and planning the [Anaheim] streetcar proposal, with a warning to get the costs down” (per Tuesday’s Register story, outside Paywall here) underscores the political quality of the Board’s leadership and composition, its process of consensus vs. common sense decision making, its ignorance of simple technical concepts and a considerable lack of fiscal responsibility by not acknowledging that Anaheim’s $319 million streetcar project is unnecessary, unjustified, REDUNDANT to two existing bus systems and an absurd waste of Measure M tax money.

One of the country’s smartest and most honest analysts on transit and light rail is Randal O’Toole. Mr. O’Toole’s been associated with the Cato Institute for almost 20 years and per his Wikipedia bio focuses “on private land rights, particularly against public land use regulations and light rail.” His research and writing illustrates the folly and terribly bad decision that the OCTA and city of Anaheim have made in approving a $319 million streetcar system to connect their Convention Center, a station near (but not at or in) Disneyland to the new $184 million ARTIC train station — totally, a $503 million unjustifiable RISK to connect Disney patrons and conventioneers to the California High-Speed Rail system that’s simply not coming to Anaheim. Continue reading→